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Heavy maintenance of offshore wind turbines

Our latest innovation challenge

Hywind turbine at Karmøy

REQUEST DESCRIPTION

Heavy maintenance shall in this innovation contest be understood to comprise replacement and/or repair of large components in the Rotor and Nacelle Assembly (RNA) of an offshore wind turbine. Examples of such components are rotor, rotor blade, hub, rotor blade pitch bearing, main bearing, generator, gearbox and transformer. Jack-up vessels are used for this purpose in the offshore wind industry today.

It is expected that it will not be possible to use jack-up vessels for performing heavy maintenance for many of the future floating wind farm developments. The reason for this is water depth limitations. It is also considered that using large floating crane vessels for heavy maintenance on floating wind turbines will neither be practical nor economically viable, due to long mobilisation time, large day rates and very short weather windows.

Statoil is therefore seeking proposals for equipment and procedures to facilitate efficient heavy maintenance operations on wind turbines offshore. The solutions should not depend upon the use of jack-up vessels or large floating crane vessels.

ABOUT THIS CONTEST

Participants must complete the proposal and submit by April 23rd 2017. The proposals will be evaluated during April 2017, and participants may be contacted by the evaluation committee for clarifications.

AWARD

At least one, and up to three proposals will be announced as winners in May 2017, and will each be awarded a cash prize of NOK 100000. When receiving the prize, the winners acknowledge an intention to go into discussions with the aim of developing the proposal further, potentially into an industrial solution. Statoil may in dialogue with the winner(s) introduce a third party in the further development if required.

BACKGROUND

Offshore wind is an important part of Statoil’s plans for building a profitable new energy business. At the Capital Markets Update in London on February 7th this year, and based on potential future corporate portfolio, Statoil made public the ambition to allocate 15-20 % of CAPEX in 2030 to low-carbon solutions, including new energy projects.

Statoil is presently involved in the following offshore wind projects:

Dogger Bank, early phase bottom fixed wind farm project in the UK sector of the North Sea, not yet sanctioned, four offshore wind farms are being considered in the area, each with a capacity of up to 1.2 GW

A steadily increasing number of offshore wind farms will need maintenance and replacement of heavy equipment.

KEY SUCCESS CRITERIA

Offshore wind turbines have either bottom-fixed or floating foundations. The technology to be developed here shall be suitable for floating wind turbines, but is expected to be useful for bottom-fixed turbines as well.

The participants shall provide a solution for equipment and methodology for:

The proposed solution shall not depend upon the use of jack-up vessels or large floating crane vessels.

The proposal must comprise:

Concept description

Operational and handling procedures

Assessment of technical maturity

Recommendations for further work

Technology readiness:

Statoil aims at doing a pilot project in 2020-2021

Illustrative image of direct drive turbine.

Components which are typically expected to be subject to repair/replacement during a heavy maintenance operation are rotor, rotor blade, hub, rotor blade pitch bearing, main bearing, generator, gearbox and transformer.

These components are attached to the Wind Turbine Generator (WTG) at a height of 100 – 150 m above the sea surface, depending on the size of the rotor, and have a weight ranging from 5 to 150 tons, with the generator, hub and gearbox being the heaviest.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

Europe is at present the World leader in developing offshore wind. More than 12 GW offshore wind capacity is installed in Europe today. This constitute the accumulated installed capacity from more than 3500 grid-connected turbines in 10 countries. Installed capacity is expected to grow to more than 24 MW by 2020. More information about key trends and statistics for the European offshore wind industry can be found on the PDF below.

Offshore wind is also starting to enter into the US market. The first offshore wind farm in the US was installed last year (Block Island Wind Farm). The commercial market for offshore wind today is for wind turbines mounted on bottom-fixed foundations. Some pilot projects with floating wind turbines are starting to emerge, but this is still not an established market. However, Statoil is working towards making floating offshore wind competitive, and towards building a market for the technology.

WARRANTIES

By submitting an Entry, you represent and warrant that all information in your Entry and all information that you submit via the Competition Website is true and complete to the best of your knowledge, that you have the right and authority to submit the Entry and disclose the information therein on your own behalf or on behalf of the persons and entities that you specify within the Entry, and that your Entry (both the information and materials submitted in the Entry and the underlying technology/method/idea described in the Entry):

is your own original work and representative of your capability, or is submitted by permission with full and proper credit given within your Entry;

does not contain confidential information or trade secrets (yours or anyone else’s);

does not, to the best of your knowledge, violate or infringe upon the patent rights, industrial design rights, copyrights, trademarks, rights of privacy, publicity or other intellectual property or other rights of any person or entity;

does not contain malicious code, such as viruses, malware, timebombs, cancelbots, worms, Trojan horses or other potentially harmful programs or other material or information;

does not and will not violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance, rule, regulation, confidentiality agreement or other agreement; and

does not trigger any reporting or royalty or other obligation to any third party.

A breach of any of these warranties will result in the corresponding Entry being invalid. In addition, you agree to indemnify Sponsors against all loss, damages and costs incurred by the Sponsors arising from your breach of the warranty.

SELECTION / REVIEW PROCESS

Statoil will handle all proposals professionally. Respondents acknowledge that Statoil reserves the sole and absolute right and discretion to select winner(s). The entry evaluation and award determination will be made by an internal Statoil team